My Make Money Mission

How much can you make with AdFoc.us?

2012-01-21T19:24:00.000-08:00

I recently started using a new link referral site called AdFoc.us to try and make more money online. I post a ton of links on my ten blogs so hopefully I can create more than a thousand link clicks a month in order to reach the ten dollar minimum payout level. Many poeple think AdFoc is a scam but there are plenty of proof of payments out there. I do have a concern with the number of users on Facebook claiming they never got paid. I guess I will find out. Join AdFoc today and start making money online.

Make money online through book publishing

2012-01-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

My foray into writing and selling books has begun. Using Create Space and Kindle direct publishing I have published my first two books (with two more in the works).

The first book I published is a work of non-fiction about designing and building roller coasters called Coasters 101: An Engineering Guide to Roller Coaster Design.

Purchase the paperback from Amazon or Create Space eStore.

Purchase the eBook Kindle edition from Amazon.

Mu second book is my first work of fiction about an American engineer living and working in China. Nike's Chinese New Year is target at those with a curiosity in China who enjoy erupting in laughter.

Buy the eBook version here (paperback coming soon!).

Always looking for reviewers if there are any other authors who would like to exchange works.

2011: A look back at another year of blogging

2012-01-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

It's time to look back at some statistics for my blogs from 2011 and access what things worked and what didn’t, which strategies made money and which one did not. I maintained ten different blogs throughout the year (some receiving more attention than others) and had about 163,000 total unique visitors with 280,000 page views. I wrote a total of 514 posts which averages to about one and a half per day.

My most successful blog, with over 50% of the combined traffic, was Excel Spreadsheets Help. Percussion and Drum Stuff was next with 20%, which also had the highest number of page views per visitor, at 2.2. I posted the most items (71) to Zoo Tails but unfortunately had the worst number of visitors per post, at 48 (compared to Excel's 1630). This leads me to the conclusion that Excel has the highest quality of posts.

I've pretty much decided to kill my Turning Tables music blog as well as my Engineering Job Search due to high competition and not enough original content from myself. My personal blog, the Cyclone Edition, has basically turned into a "Best Tweets" blog where I post some of the most hilarious tweets after a football game or major news event (such as the death of Osama Bin Laden). Started a new blog in October called Crafting Made Simple which I believe has great potential. I also published my first eBook (which I will give more data on once I get more to draw conclusions from).

As for the Make Money Mission blog, it came in right in the middle of the pack in all of the statistics. I still plan on keeping it around just for the sole purpose of posts like this one where I take stock of where I'm at. The good news is I've made financial gains and improvement over last year but I'm still not to the level where I want to be. I aim to write better, higher quality posts this year. Other improvements include a downloads page on my top three blogs linked to my ShareCash.

Speaking of which, does anyone know of a good alternative to ShareCash? The payouts have been really nice but everytime I try to upload a file it won't let me, leaving tons of cash on the table. There are also times when I go days without making any money and I know users are clicking the download links leading me to believe there site goes down from time to time (or that they're stealing from me). I would definetely like to find a reliable alternate downloading site than ShareCash but are there any that payout as well?

Monthly Online Alternative Income Report: December 2011

2012-01-01T19:17:00.000-08:00

Happy 2012! We'll have a full income report for the entire year of 2011 coming up but first it's time to look at the make money mission's online revenue from the month of December 2011. How much money can you make with Adsense, Kontera, Amazon Affiliates, Inbox Dollars, and ShareCash in one month?

Adsense: $59.99
Kontera: $90.88
Amazon: $0.18
Inbox Dollars: $0.87
Share Cash: $34.29

Total: $189.59

As predicted, December was our most profitable month of the year! Kontera Ads especially kicked ass this month. I hope this creates some momentum that carries over to next year. I'm so glad I was able to stop taking online surveys and devote extra time to blogging, which helped result in better posts, more visitors, and higher earnings from ads. My online income total from December 2010 was only $30! I've made a big improvement since then. Hopefully, I'll see the same amount of improvement next December!

Click on the links above to join those websites and starting earning money online today!

Gift Ideas for Bloggers and Money Saving Tips

2011-12-03T17:02:00.001-08:00

Looking for gift ideas for a fellow blogger? Shopping for a money saving freak? Here are a few holiday gift ideas for you.

Make Money Online: How I Created a Six Figure Income Giving Away a Dead Guy's Book. Vic Johnson s advice has added tens of thousands of dollars to my business over the past year. In fact, one of his ideas added over $100,000 revenue in one month. Pay attention to him and his material, you will be glad you did. Vic is one of the best things that ever happened to my business.

25 Ways to Make Money Online: Your Complete Guide to Legitimate Online Jobs and Opportunities That Allow You to Work From Home And Earn A Paycheck. Hundreds of websites listed in 25 legitimate opportunities, this book provides you the information and resources to earn a paycheck from home.

Make Money Online: Roadmap of a Dot Com Mogul. They may have once been the realm of personal online diaries, but blogs have quickly become just as legitimate and influential as mainstream newspapers and magazines. Did you know that you can make a very healthy income from blogging? Do you want to make five figures every month? I can show you how.

Imagine walking into a coffee shop and meeting 19 people at one large table, each of whom works from home for a living and each of whom does something different. Some sell mortgages, others write resumes, and some sell crafts, all from the comfort of their home. Now think for a minute if you could get each person, all 19 of them, to write a plan for building the online business that they perform from home complete with the rates they charge, the places they advertise, and the information they use to run their business. Enter The Recession-Busting Guide to Making Money Online From Home, an absolute must have for those serious about starting a home-based business online. In the recession our country faces today, this book helps lift people up with inspirational stories of people making money from home in the most peculiar of ways, all true, all written by the people who actually make the money each day from home?not journalists or spectators, but the players themselves.

And some shameless self-promotion. Have you ever wondered what it takes to design and build a roller coaster? At last, there’s a book that shows you. A mix of engineering and art, roller coasters are complex three-dimensional puzzles consisting of thousands of individual parts. Designers spend countless hours creating and tweaking ride paths to push the envelope of exhilaration, all while maintaining the highest safety standards. Coasters 101: An Engineering Guide to Roller Coaster Design examines the numerous diverse aspects of roller coaster engineering, including some of the mathematical formulas and engineering concepts used.

Monthly Online Alternative Income Report: November 2011

2011-12-03T13:10:00.001-08:00

Using your online resources is a great way to make alternative sources of income. Here's my monthly report for November 2011.

Adsense: $48.15(+)
Kontera: $26.14(+)
Amazon: $0.18(+)
Share Cash (Link Bucks): $19.15 (-)

Total: $93.98

All those sites and spam posters on blogs claim you can make $70 per hour are all false. You can make an extra five bucks a day pretty easily though (~$2000/year). Google Adsense is kicking butt right now- myhighest monthly total to date. I think Share Cash wasn't working properly most of the month so it was down, which sucks because its been such a big part of my internet income lately. Kontera is doing pretty well too.

I expect a big month next month for two reasons: 1. Holiday shopping. As you can see I made 18 cents for referring a shopper to Amazon.com thus getting me a 4% return on their purchase. Hopefully, they'll be even more shoppers in the coming weeks.

2. College football bowl season. My Excel Spreadsheet Help blog has been very successful, mainly due to my sports related spreadsheets. The NCAA college football bowl season is upon us and I plan in posting some schedule spreadsheets.

How to make money online by blogging part 1

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

So you want to start a blog to start making money online? I can give you more detailed information later but basically I use Google's Blogger (www.blogger.com/) because it's easy to use, it's free, and Adsense is already integrated into it. You should be able to sign up with any email address (meaning you don't have to have gmail).

One of the main reasons for having a blog in my eyes to make a little extra cash on the side. You probably won't get rich but it'll help pay for a few bills or extra spending money. Main sources of income on the blogs are Adsense, Kontera Ads, and Share Cash.

http://www.kontera.com/publishers/sign-up?aff_id=128897
http://sharecash.org/index.php?ref=474375

Here's my most successful blog as an example:

http://excelspreadsheetshelp.blogspot.com/

Facebook Scam Emails

2011-11-27T17:47:00.001-08:00

Beware the recent onslaught of scam emails, this time posing as Facebook messages. You may receive an email with a subject line something like "Sam H has posted on your wall." In the body of the message there will either be a link which says " see what he/she wrote by clicking here" or "click this link to unsubscribe." DO NOT CLICK any links in these messages. They are spam. Happy Holidays!

Holiday Shopping?

2011-11-23T11:30:00.000-08:00

Make Money Holiday Shopping! Looking for savings this holiday season?

Happy Thanksgiving! The holiday season is upon us! It's time to start thinking about what's on your shopping list. The easiest way to avoid all the inconveniences of holiday shopping lines and crowds is to order your gifts online. But what does this have to do with this blog? Well, why not help support this site and get your holiday shopping done at the same time? I would really appreciate it if you can help support this site by using our Amazon.com search box. It's simple to use: just type the name of the product you are looking for in the Amazon.com search box and it will automatically take you to the Amazon website of the product. Simply order the gift as normal and a (tiny) fraction of what you spend will go to this site. What am I going to do with the money? Put it all back into the site to make it even better! Help me help you. (We also accept donations through PayPal, see the link on the sidebar).

Do you need a little extra cash during this holiday season? Start using the internet to your advantage to make some additional revenue. See the sidebar for the most popular sites I use to make fast money off of the internet. They're all free and easy to use. You don't have to put anything into it except a little time. Sites like Opinion Outpost pay you to take surveys online. Within a few weeks of joining you could be holding a check for $100!

Status of the Mission: Money Making Thoughts

2011-11-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

As I'm approaching the two year mark into this money making experiment I'm learning that it may be better to give 110% and make one great, high quality blog experience then trying to maintain 5 - 10 average, mediocre level blogs. Although if you had the time to have several high quality sites then that would be the best but if your full time job is not blogging then that would be tough and very time consuming to do.

My current online revenue rate is 3 to 4 dollars per day. I have nine blogs. Let's say I lose my day job for whatever reason. To keep my current quality of life I need to make an estimated $1500 per month, or, on average, about 50 dollars per day. In other words, we would need to increase our efficiency by over one thousand percent to become independent and self-employed. Is it possible? On one blog we increased visitors by three hundred percent which helped increase revenue by 200%. If we could do that on five of our nine blogs that would give us our 1000% efficiency increase needed.

My advice to you is focus on one blog and make it the best that it can be. Then go from there.

Proof of Payment: Inbox Dollars

2011-11-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

Make money online! InboxDollars pays its members to: Sign Up, Read E-Mail, Refer Others, Join Survey Sites, Play Games, Complete Offers, and More! I just received a check in the mail for $29.12 so yes, it really does work and is not a scam. It does take awhile to to get to that point but the good news is it is really simple as long as you have an email address. You will get several emails a day and after you click the link in the email can net you between two and fifteen cents per email. You won't get rich but a nice check in the mail every couple of months will help pay a few bills. Join Inbox Dollars and start earning money online today.

Monthly Report: October 2011

2011-11-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

I skipped out on the last couple of monthly reports. Sorry. Excuses are for losers so let's jump right into the monthly report for October 2011.

Adsense: $37.61(+)
Kontera: $24.28(+)
Share Cash (Link Bucks): $22.94 (-)

Total: $88.17

Highest totals yet from Adsense and Link Bucks. As you can see, due to my busy real life, I've cut my dependence on time consuming survey sites and really focused on getting more out of my ads and file downloads, which has paid off big time. Less work plus more money, a combination I want to keep increasing. Until next time...

Hilarious Spam Email: FBI agent Amy Jo Lyons

2011-10-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

I recently received a spam email which I thought was hilarious. Like, really? That's the best you can do?

From: Agent Amy Jo Lyons Office

Assistant Director, Inspection Division

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FBI Headquarters

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA

Urgent attention

I am special Agent Amy Jo Lyons from the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Inspection Division. We have just intercepted and confiscated two (2) trunk boxes at JFK airport in New York, and are on the verge of moving it to our Bureau Head Quarters.

We have scanned the said boxes, and have found it to contain a total sum of USD4.1M and also backup document which bears your name as the receiver of the money contained in the boxes. Investigations carried out on the diplomat who accompanied the boxes into the United States has it that he was to deliver these funds to your residence as your contract/inheritance payment which was due you from the office of Finance Minister of the Federal Government of Nigeria.

We cross-checked all legal documentation in the boxes, and were about to release the consignment to the diplomat, when we found out that the boxes is lacking one very important documentation which as a result, the boxes have been confiscated until the required document is provided.

According to section 229 subsection 31 of the 1991 constitution on release of unclaimed consignment payment, your consignment lacks funds ownership certificate and for that reason you must contact me for direction on how to procure this certificate, so that your consignment can be legally cleared and okay for delivery to you.

You are required to contact this bureau within 72hours or we would take it that you do not want your consignment, and would move it to the treasury.

Also, you must not contact any other bank for any payment, because your payment is here in care of our storage vault team and will be released to you once you follow my directions.

Yours in service

Agent Amy Jo Lyons

Assistant Director, Inspection Division

Federal Bureau of Investigation

FBI Headquarters

935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

Washington, D.C. 20535-0001, USA

3 Reasons Why Creating a Blog is Great for Your Job Search

2011-10-10T19:19:00.001-07:00

Developing and maintaining an online presence is becoming more important as employers rely on online background checks to research candidates. This is why it's a good idea to create your own blog. But if you're unsure that it will work for you, here are three reasons to place it on your list of considerations.
Read More

Proof of Payment: MyView Survey

2011-10-04T19:06:00.000-07:00

Just cashed out a $25 i-tunes giftcard from MyView Survey taking site. Sign up today and start making money online. One of my friends makes about $115 per month just by taking surveys. It's easy and anyone can do it.

Reward from MyView Research Panel!

Order Summary Information

Cost: 36400 Points

Reward Name: ITunes $25 Gift Card

Reward Description: Choose from over 5 million songs, albums, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and iPod? games.

Fullfillment Time: 1 week

Remaining Balance: 15815 MVPs

Have a great day!

Monthly Report: August 2011

2011-09-06T20:32:00.000-07:00

It's September can you believe it? What's also hard to believe is how well I did last month, easy the best month to date in the one-and-a-half year history of the mission. I'm finally headed in the direction I want to be going. The best news of all is I've finally reduced my dependency on surveys. Less than 1% of August's total came from survey sites. That's awesome! Don't get me wrong, survey sites work and are fruitful, they just take time to do, too much time for me. Which is why last month was so successful in my eyes. The time involved was almost nothing and the profits were through the roof compared to previoustotals from the past year plus. Still not a fortune (barely covers the cost of the internet/cable itself) but it is headed in the right direction and is very encouraging. You need moments like this to push yourself to keep going, to strive for more. The sky is not the limit.

Adsense: $29.77
Kontera: $14.65
MyView: $0.80
MySurvey: $0.35
OpinionOutpost: $3.00
Inbox Dollars: $2.28
SendEarnings: $0.02
Wikinut: $0.05
Shareapic: $0.02
Share Cash (Link Bucks): $91.06

Total: $137.97

Win an Apple Ipod2

2011-08-08T03:11:00.000-07:00

Win an Apple Ipod2 by entering into CATIA's 2011 design visualization competition. The Contest will evaluate realistic rendering images that use CATIA functionalities. Whether a real-time screen-shot or a calculated rendering, the designer's image will be submitted to a panel of CATIA experts and fans will be able to vote for it via the application. The contest runs from July 21 to September 9, 2011. The two best competitors, selected by the fans and by the CATIA experts, will win an Apple iPad2.

The contest also deploys a unique strategic element. The Contest's Premium Area increases the visibility of participants' realistic rendering images and can therefore lead to more votes. The Premium Area is open to all participants who have obtained ten Premium tickets and who want to promote their realistic rendering images for a 12-hour period, starting whenever they choose. All images in the Premium Area are displayed and updated at random, ensuring equal coverage for each entry.

I've entered the contest with my cantilevered roller coaster images. I would truly appreciate it if you would consider voting for me. Thanks! http://apps.facebook.com/dassault-catia/profile/150.html

My Make Money Mission Monthly Report: July 2011

2011-08-01T17:21:00.000-07:00

Monthly Online Earnings Report:
It's that time again. Let's take a look at the monthly statistics report for the month of July, 2011. The sign in parenthesis is more or less than the previous month.

Adsense: $21.77(+)
Kontera: $4.65(+)
MyView: $0.80(+)
MySurvey: $0.35 (-)
OpinionOutpost: $3.00 (+)
Inbox Dollars: $2.28 (+)
SendEarnings: $0.02(+)
Wikinut: $0.05 (-)
Shareapic: $0.02
Share Cash (Link Bucks): $7.32 (-)

Total: $40.24

Observations:
Now it's time for a few of my observations for the month. First off all, way to go Adsense! In over a year of doing this I have finally broken the twenty dollar mark in single month and earned my highest Adsense revenue for a month with $21.77. I hope it keeps rolling. Share Cash is holding it down and I just requested another $16 payout. Send Earnings was way down for some reason, I'm not really sure why. You can also see that once again the theme for the summer continues in that I just don't have the time or energy to sit and take online surveys. I haven't earned any referral money lately either. Thank goodness Adsense is picking up the slack!

Contests
In other news, one of my contests is doing quite well after a very scary slow start. I've doubled the number of followers on my Excel Spreadsheet Help blog. The question is how long will those people stick around and what will the long term benefit be? My other contest, on my Percussion and Drum Stuff blog, has been a complete dud. Only two entries in the last three weeks. Hmmm. I'll be writing a more detailed post on if I thought it was worth it to hold a contest in a little post.

Can you make money taking online surveys?

2011-07-18T06:06:00.000-07:00

I recently received payouts for a few of the online survey sites I use. Here is my proof of payment for using MySurvey. $10 via PayPal.

For the second payout, which was using MyView, I requested a $25 giftcard to Applebee's. I still have a ton of points to use too. Maybe next time I'll opt for the Visa gift card.

So what are you waiting for? Starting earning money online today.

Join MySurvey.
Join MyView

Win $100

2011-07-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

I posted a chance to win $100 through PayPal on two of my blogs, here and here. There's only been one entry thus far so I'd say you have a pretty good shot at winning (and the experiment is a failure thus far, come on people help me out!)

Life isn't Fair and How to Earn More Money

2011-07-12T16:16:00.000-07:00

I need to rant a little. I think our society is blindfolded. There's too much focus in America on equally and treating everyone the same. That's not how the world works. Life isn't fair so let's not pretend it is. Tragically, not everyone who wants to ride a roller coaster can ride one. The workers were probably too afraid to tell him no.

Why are business stuck in this 8-5 work schedule mentality? Am totally productive for those eight or nine straight hours? Probably not. Maybe I am feeling productive from 9:30-1 but need a break, then suddenly I get the urge to work again at 11pm. If I can do in 4 hours what another takes 8 hours to do, why do I still have to stay for the full 8 hour day?

Karol at http://www.ridiculouslyextraordinary.com/ recently shared a good link on his blog about focusing more on earning more money instead of focusing on saving a few pennies here and there. A good strategy but harder to implement than it seems. But I think I will follow his advice, instead of wasting time making pennies with online surveys work harder to market my blogs and provide great content.

This week I start my follower contest experiment. More on this soon...

June 2011 Monthly Report

2011-07-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

Let's take a look at the monthly statistics report for the month of June, 2011. The sign in parenthesis is more or less than the previous month.

Adsense: $9.87(-)
Kontera: $4.02(-)
MyView: $0.71(1)
MySurvey: $1.50 (-)
OpinionOutpost: $1.70 (+)
Inbox Dollars: $2.17 (+)
SendEarnings: $3.00 (+)
Wikinut: $0.07 (-)
Shareapic: $0.02
Link Bucks: $9.22 (-)
Dreamstime: $2.25(-)

Total: $32.22

Everything was down a little bit as I figured would be in my previous post. What began as a promising year has since continued to spiral downward. Hopefully, within the next two weeks I will have time to begin to turn things around (plus it is summer in which people, including me, would rather be outside enjoying the weather).

Link bucks (actually known as Share Cash) has begun kicking butt again. Let's hope they don't attempt to ban me again. Inbox Dollars and Send Earnings did pretty well too compared to previous months. The big loss in revenue was the lack of me taking time consuming surveys. I'd much rather earn through referrals (so please sign up! ;)

Stay tuned next month for our very first contest in which you could win money through PayPal. The point will be twofold. We'll also learn if contests can bring in more readers and if you can bring more money in through new readers to counteract the prize money.

Make Money Online Contest - WIN $100

2011-06-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

I just came across a $100 giveaway contest on a blog that I will share about with you. After all, who can't use $100? It is in celebration of "I Can't Come Up With A Blog Post Day." Basically, when you can't come up with an idea for a blog post do a contest instead. The goal being that the free publicity and visits you get will in the long-run offset the $100 dollars that you are giving away. Very smart. I'd like to see how that works out for them. Of course, this blog is the only one where you'll see the exact dollar values on how much I actually make using only online sources. Very easy to enter so why not give it a try? The drawing will take place on July 4.

Thinking about doing one of these myself. What do you think?

Is UPS notification email a scam?

2011-06-14T18:19:00.000-07:00

In a word, YES! The UPS notification email scam is back. Watch out for this spam. The most recent message is from "United Parcel Service " and contains several attachments. DO NOT download the attachments or click any links in these emails as they are a scam.